Air fares: Not dropping like fuel prices, but lowest since 2010

Air fares may not have dropped as much as lower fuel prices suggest they could, but they have reached the lowest average since 2010, a federal agency said today.

The average domestic fare fell to $363 in the fourth quarter of 2015, down 8.3 percent from $396 in the fourth quarter of 2014, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said.

That’s not on the level of a drop of prices at the gas pump from more than $3 a gallon in 2014 to close to $2 last year.

Still, the bottom line is fares are down. For the full year of 2015, the average fare of $377 was down 3.8 percent, inflation-adjusted, from the 2014 average fare of $392 and down 19.2 percent from a high of $467 in 2000, officials said. The 2015 full-year average was the lowest since $365 in 2010, the agency said.